


Demons

by flinthasfeels



Category: Banana Fish (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Ash Lynx Lives, Ash Lynx Needs A Hug, Ash Lynx and Okumura Eiji Go to Japan, Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hugs, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Okumura Eiji is the best
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-06
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-19 09:36:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29872692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flinthasfeels/pseuds/flinthasfeels
Summary: After Ash thinks he spotted Dino Golzine amidst the streets of Japan, Eiji reminds him that Dino is no more, and that he is safe.This is a rewrite of the first writing I posted on here, “The Aftermath of One’s Actions.”
Relationships: Ash Lynx/Okumura Eiji
Kudos: 44





	Demons

Commercial after commercial flashes across the television screen but Eiji seems to pay no mind, staring off into nothingness. Old habits seem to die hard, for he still waits up for Ash to arrive home at late hours. He doubts, no, he’s almost sure it doesn’t have to do with gang activity anymore. They were many miles away from New York City, and with that they left all their demons and burdens behind. 

Eiji doesn’t question what Ash does amidst the streets of Japan alone. Ash had stated he was job surfing, so Eiji concludes that he’s simply strolling around searching in the quietness of his own independence. Or maybe he’s not looking for anything at all— maybe he’s simply taking in the brand new culture of a whole new country.  _ Culture shock, _ Eiji concludes.

Either way, he is kept with a slight worry idle in his chest. He has a clutch on a phone that holds unanswered messages from the other, and he can’t help but to allow his mind to wander about various conclusions to why Ash is not back yet. And with his thoughts wandering, so does his conscious. His eyelids are quite heavy, like the imaginary strings that are holding them up are faltering. He drifts for only a few seconds before his eyelids jolt back open to the sound of a key shakily locking a door. He glances upward, wincing at the strain of his neck from the way he was just positioned.

“Ash?” Eiji brings himself upward and towards him, who seemingly is standing as stiffly as a statue, except statues don’t necessarily shake.

For a heartbeat of a moment, Ash stands still, arms by his side and fists balled tight. He’s facing away from Eiji as if he had been blinded.

“Ash?” Eiji repeats, and Ash only shifts slightly at the call of his name. “Ash, did you get lost or something? You were gone longer than usual.”

The other only shakes his head. “Had to make sure no one was following me,” he croaks, before continuing. “We have to leave Eiji— or at least I have to.”

Eiji feels dumbfounded by his words, and when Ash finally looks deadpan at him, he sees the same hardened, cold, and masked eyes revisit. Those same eyes he had to see so often when they were in New York.

“ _Who_ is following you? Why do you— why do we need to leave?”

Ash’s face contorts to a look of hesitation, the words forming at his tongue felt rotten. “Dino,” he hisses, the name being spat out in silent rage. “I know I saw him, Eiji. We need to...” He trails off when he chokes back an upcoming, and rather unexpected sob.

Eiji suppresses any whisper of an urge that tells him to panic. “What? How do you know it was him?”

Silence. Yet, it wasn’t their usual silence, the type of silence they’d feel when spending their mornings or drifting off to sleep. It was raw and uncomfortable, and with that, heavily thick in the atmosphere.

“The man I saw, he was also bald and wore a hat just like Dino’s. It has to be—“ Ash halts, the strength in his voice shredded down by some type of terror. He snaps away eye contact with Eiji just to look over his shoulder, despite everything being quite a blur, and he stares off.

The walls that he holds up around him crumble slightly— he starts to cry. Tears dampen his cheeks as he covers his face with his arm, hiccuping. It’s like whiplash, a pit of rage leaving him ample one moment— and absolute sorrow and vulnerability the next. His emotions are a cocktail of what he had suppressed up until now, too busy ignoring it as it unknowingly grew, giving him a false sense of who was dead and who was alive anymore. He’s frustrated at himself for displaying his emotions so messily in front of Eiji.  _Japan was supposed to be a fresh start,_ he thinks. Could it have been Dino he saw? He was unsure, for he was always instinctively done to think the worst of situations.

“Ash...” Eiji gestures an arm out with a look that’s not necessarily pity, but rather a sorrow of his own. “Can I hug you? I don’t know how else I can help you.”

There’s a vulnerability present behind those words, and Ash can’t help but to nod weakly. Thus, Eiji gestures his other arm out and brings Ash into a hug, placing gentle hands atop his back. The hug is refreshing to say the least, and Ash relishes it upon the tears overbuilding in his eyes again. The wall crumbles some more, and the weight in his chest both tightens and lessens with every exasperated breath of a cry.

Eiji brings a hand from Ash’s back to his hair while continuing to hold him in his grasp. “Dino is dead, Ash. You told me you saw him fall into that pit of flames, right?”

Ash nods, and Eiji lets out a sigh of relief.

He continues. “You had told me he was already shot upon reaching you before he fell— I don’t think anyone can survive falling into a pit of flames while bleeding out, Ash.” Eiji gives him a light squeeze of reassurance. “Dino isn’t here anymore, you’re safe.”

Ash is reluctant to allow those words to register as  true  in his brain, but nonetheless he melts more into the embrace. The weight in his chest subsides for now, and he lets out a breath he didn’t know he was holding.

“Thank you, Eiji.”

“You don’t need to thank me, Ash. You’re safe, I promise.”


End file.
